Max Lucado Daily: A Perfect Partnership - May 17, 2022
During World War I, Biddy Chambers, her husband, and small daughter moved to Egypt, where he served as a chaplain. He taught, she transcribed. It was a perfect partnership.
Then her husband’s complications from appendicitis rendered Biddy a widow. All dreams of a teaching ministry would have to be abandoned, right? No. She turned her husband’s notes into pamphlets. Eventually they were compiled into a book, My Utmost for His Highest. This work of Oswald Chambers has sold more than thirteen million copies and has been translated into more than thirty-five languages.
The next time you feel overwhelmed remind yourself of the One who is standing next to you. Give him what you have, offer thanks, and watch him go to work. Remember, friends, you are never alone.
Luke 14:1-24
One time when Jesus went for a Sabbath meal with one of the top leaders of the Pharisees, all the guests had their eyes on him, watching his every move. Right before him there was a man hugely swollen in his joints. So Jesus asked the religion scholars and Pharisees present, “Is it permitted to heal on the Sabbath? Yes or no?”
4-6 They were silent. So he took the man, healed him, and sent him on his way. Then he said, “Is there anyone here who, if a child or animal fell down a well, wouldn’t rush to pull him out immediately, not asking whether or not it was the Sabbath?” They were stumped. There was nothing they could say to that.
Invite the Misfits
7-9 He went on to tell a story to the guests around the table. Noticing how each had tried to elbow into the place of honor, he said, “When someone invites you to dinner, don’t take the place of honor. Somebody more important than you might have been invited by the host. Then he’ll come and call out in front of everybody, ‘You’re in the wrong place. The place of honor belongs to this man.’ Embarrassed, you’ll have to make your way to the very last table, the only place left.
10-11 “When you’re invited to dinner, go and sit at the last place. Then when the host comes he may very well say, ‘Friend, come up to the front.’ That will give the dinner guests something to talk about! What I’m saying is, If you walk around all high and mighty, you’re going to end up flat on your face. But if you’re content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself.”
12-14 Then he turned to the host. “The next time you put on a dinner, don’t just invite your friends and family and rich neighbors, the kind of people who will return the favor. Invite some people who never get invited out, the misfits from the wrong side of the tracks. You’ll be—and experience—a blessing. They won’t be able to return the favor, but the favor will be returned—oh, how it will be returned!—at the resurrection of God’s people.”
The Story of the Dinner Party
15 That triggered a response from one of the guests: “How fortunate the one who gets to eat dinner in God’s kingdom!”
16-17 Jesus followed up. “Yes. For there was once a man who threw a great dinner party and invited many. When it was time for dinner, he sent out his servant to the invited guests, saying, ‘Come on in; the food’s on the table.’
18 “Then they all began to beg off, one after another making excuses. The first said, ‘I bought a piece of property and need to look it over. Send my regrets.’
19 “Another said, ‘I just bought five teams of oxen, and I really need to check them out. Send my regrets.’
20 “And yet another said, ‘I just got married and need to get home to my wife.’
21 “The servant went back and told the master what had happened. He was outraged and told the servant, ‘Quickly, get out into the city streets and alleys. Collect all who look like they need a square meal, all the misfits and homeless and down-and-out you can lay your hands on, and bring them here.’
22 “The servant reported back, ‘Master, I did what you commanded—and there’s still room.’
23-24 “The master said, ‘Then go to the country roads. Whoever you find, drag them in. I want my house full! Let me tell you, not one of those originally invited is going to get so much as a bite at my dinner party.’”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, May 17, 2022
Today's Scripture
Daniel 2:24–30
So Daniel went back to Arioch, who had been put in charge of the execution. He said, “Call off the execution! Take me to the king and I’ll interpret his dream.”
25 Arioch didn’t lose a minute. He ran to the king, bringing Daniel with him, and said, “I’ve found a man from the exiles of Judah who can interpret the king’s dream!”
26 The king asked Daniel (renamed in Babylonian, Belteshazzar), “Are you sure you can do this—tell me the dream I had and interpret it for me?”
27–28 Daniel answered the king, “No mere human can solve the king’s mystery, I don’t care who it is—no wise man, enchanter, magician, diviner. But there is a God in heaven who solves mysteries, and he has solved this one. He is letting King Nebuchadnezzar in on what is going to happen in the days ahead. This is the dream you had when you were lying on your bed, the vision that filled your mind:
29–30 “While you were stretched out on your bed, O king, thoughts came to you regarding what is coming in the days ahead. The Revealer of Mysteries showed you what will happen. But the interpretation is given through me, not because I’m any smarter than anyone else in the country, but so that you will know what it means, so that you will understand what you dreamed.
Insight
The book of Daniel spans seventy years (605–535 bc) of the Babylonian exile, Judah’s punishment for her covenantal unfaithfulness (Deuteronomy 28:36, 64; Jeremiah 25:11; 29:10–11). Daniel, given the Babylonian name Belteshazzar (Daniel 1:7), was one of the many teenagers of royal and noble descent deported to Babylon and educated in the ways of the Babylonians to serve the victorious Babylonian king (vv. 3–7). Daniel 2 tells of how Daniel rose to become Nebuchadnezzar’s chief adviser and right-hand man. He became adviser and confidante to the kings of Babylon (chs. 1–5) and Medo-Persia (ch. 6)—the superpowers of the ancient world. In chapters 7–12, God gave Daniel four apocalyptic visions of the course of human history, reminding His people that He’s the sovereign God of all creation. By: K. T. Sim
Uncommon Courage
Take me to the king, and I will interpret his dream for him.
Daniel 2:24
In 1478, Lorenzo de Medici, the ruler of Florence, Italy, escaped an attack on his life. His countrymen sparked a war when they tried to retaliate against the attack on their leader. As the situation worsened, the cruel King Ferrante I of Naples became Lorenzo’s enemy, but a courageous act by Lorenzo changed everything. He visited the king unarmed and alone. This bravery, paired with his charm and brilliance, won Ferrante’s admiration and ended the war.
Daniel also helped a king experience a change of heart. No one in Babylon could describe or interpret King Nebuchadnezzar’s troubling dream. This made him so angry that he decided to execute all his advisors—including Daniel and his friends. But Daniel asked to visit the king who wanted him dead (Daniel 2:24).
Standing before Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel gave God all the credit for revealing the mystery of the dream (v. 28). When the prophet described and deciphered it, Nebuchadnezzar honored the “God of gods and the Lord of kings” (v. 47). Daniel’s uncommon courage, which was born of his faith in God, helped him, his friends, and the other advisors avoid death that day.
In our lives, there are times when bravery and boldness are needed to communicate important messages. May God guide our words and give us the wisdom to know what to say and the ability to say it well. By: Jennifer Benson Schuldt
Reflect & Pray
How has someone’s bravery made a difference in your life? How can you rest in God’s power to act courageously for Him?
Dear Jesus, thank You for the courage You showed during Your life on earth. Fill me with Your wisdom and power when I face tense situations.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, May 17, 2022
His Ascension and Our Access
It came to pass, while He blessed them, that He was parted from them and carried up into heaven. —Luke 24:51
We have no experiences in our lives that correspond to the events in our Lord’s life after the transfiguration. From that moment forward His life was altogether substitutionary. Up to the time of the transfiguration, He had exhibited the normal, perfect life of a man. But from the transfiguration forward— Gethsemane, the Cross, the resurrection— everything is unfamiliar to us. His Cross is the door by which every member of the human race can enter into the life of God; by His resurrection He has the right to give eternal life to anyone, and by His ascension our Lord entered heaven, keeping the door open for humanity.
The transfiguration was completed on the Mount of Ascension. If Jesus had gone to heaven directly from the Mount of Transfiguration, He would have gone alone. He would have been nothing more to us than a glorious Figure. But He turned His back on the glory, and came down from the mountain to identify Himself with fallen humanity.
The ascension is the complete fulfillment of the transfiguration. Our Lord returned to His original glory, but not simply as the Son of God— He returned to His father as the Son of Man as well. There is now freedom of access for anyone straight to the very throne of God because of the ascension of the Son of Man. As the Son of Man, Jesus Christ deliberately limited His omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience. But now they are His in absolute, full power. As the Son of Man, Jesus Christ now has all the power at the throne of God. From His ascension forward He is the King of kings and Lord of lords.
Wisdom From Oswald Chambers
We are not fundamentally free; external circumstances are not in our hands, they are in God’s hands, the one thing in which we are free is in our personal relationship to God. We are not responsible for the circumstances we are in, but we are responsible for the way we allow those circumstances to affect us; we can either allow them to get on top of us, or we can allow them to transform us into what God wants us to be. Conformed to His Image, 354 L
Bible in a Year: 1 Chronicles 1-3; John 5:25-47
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, May 17, 2022
Never a Sunset Without a Sunrise - #9222
Where we used to live, we had so many leaves to rake and bag, and so few free days to work on it, that one massive Saturday effort was what we depended on. And, of course, dark always came too soon. We'd race to get it all done before the sun went down, but sometimes we lost the race. Every farmer who's ever harvested a crop knows the feeling of racing the dark, but there's no way to postpone the sunset. In fact, today's almanac will tell you exactly when it's going to go down. And the later it gets in the year, well, of course, the sooner you're out of light. When you really need the sun to get things done, sunset always comes way too soon. But if you check that almanac, you'll notice there's another time given next to the time for sunset. Yeah, the time for sunrise. Now here's a scientific fact I know is going to amaze you; it's going to astound you! Have your pencil ready to write this down. Okay? Are you ready? Here we go. The number of sunrises in history is exactly equal to the number of sunsets!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Never a Sunset Without a Sunrise."
And that is a fact. The sun never sets without it rising again. That's not just meteorology. It's theology. It's a spiritual fact of life, and an emotional fact, that it's real easy to forget when it's been dark for a while. But the sunrise principle is the basis for hope when things around you seem hopeless. Key word: "seem" hopeless.
In fact, God has a hope-filled promise for us today in our word for today from the Word of God in Jeremiah 31:3-4. He says, "I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness. I will build you again and you will be rebuilt...again you will take up your tambourines and go out and dance with the joyful." God's people had been plundered, relocated, wounded, with most of what they cared about totally destroyed. They hadn't seen the sun for a long time. But God says, "It's not over, kids. The sun's going to come up again, no matter how dark it looks. Yeah, things are in ruins, but I am going to build you again. And when I get to restoring what you've lost, you will be rebuilt!"
That might be what God's trying to say to you right now. Yes, the sun went down. Yes, it's been a long night. But it's not a permanent night! There's no such thing as a sunset without a sunrise. And God promises one! He's the great Restorer, who promises in Joel 2:25 (KJV): "I will restore to you the years that the locusts have eaten." Yes, that relationship has ended. You're financially bad off. There's been a major setback or failure, a loss. But it isn't the whole book, my friend. This is a chapter in the book God is still writing. And the author has a lot more to write.
My friend had pretty much defined her past year by unresolved grief over the death of her closest friend. But then there was the week we walked through Isaiah 61, which promises that the Lord will "bind up the brokenhearted, and proclaim...release from darkness for the prisoners...He will bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair." And with a cleansing flood of tears, she let it all go. She traded her despair for praise, her ashes for beauty, and you know what? The sun has come up again.
It won't always be like this unless you decide to make it always be like this. My prayer for you is Paul's prayer for his friends in Romans 15:13, "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." He's going to rebuild you, and you will be rebuilt! You will dance again! There's no denying that your sun went down. There's no denying it got dark. But, remember, there's never a sunset without a sunrise!
From my daily reading of the bible, Our Daily Bread Devotionals, My Utmost for His Highest and Ron Hutchcraft "A Word with You" and occasionally others.